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Thursday, February 1, 2018

Dungeons, Dragons & the Jury Pool

I reported to Jury Duty today. I was on standby all week and Wednesday Night my number came up. It wasn't unexpected, I saw how close we were getting and the odds of escaping my civic duty wasn't good.

I reported to the Civil Court House. Myself and about 100 other mostly disgruntled New Yorkers.

First panel was pulled at nearly 11 AM. I escaped. Second panel about 20 minutes later. Dodged that one too, but now the pool was smaller. We're all gamers, we do odds for stuff like this in our heads. Would we make it to 1 PM lunch?

Just before Noon, another group of Jurors are called. I'm it. Save failed. One of twenty, marched off to our doom.

There are two lawyers in the room waiting for us. We get handed questionnaires to fill out. Occupation? Retired. Know anyone currently or formerly employed in law enforcement, including yourself? Affirmative. Hobbies: Write Role-playing Games. If that ain't a dodge, I don't know what is.

Seven names are called. I'm in seat number four. The first lawyer starts giving some background, the second demands a conference outside. A minute later, they are back.

We are told its a "Summary Trial". Should be over in a day, two at most. Now I want in. THIS is a winner, and much better than sitting around a courthouse for a week or two on some never ending trial when I could be doing something fun - like writing role-playing games.

The first lawyer starts talking. The second gets agitated. They leave the room, this time for ten minutes. I picture in my head the two fighting like gladiators to decide who is the dominant lawyer. Then I remember they are lawyers. Picture gone, filled with lots of "Objection!" and "Overruled!"

After we are sent to lunch, the questions begin. I'm the fourth seat, so I get to see where the questions are going, or so I thought.

"Mr Tenkar, it says here you are retired? What job did you have before retirement?"

"NYPD Sergeant"

"Color me surprised! I never would have guessed." He smiled. I guess we do have a certain look after 20 years.

"So, during those 20 years as a police officer, you must have prepared hundreds if not thousands of reports, is that not true?"

"Perhaps, but I'm a bit distanced from those reports. I spent my last 12 years off patrol."

13 comments:

I like how "Dungeons and Dragons" is becoming a generic term for "Roleplaying Games" that is understood by the general public. I would hazard a guess that several decades ago, that interchange would have been:

I LOL'd so hard at this I had to wipe my eyes with a Kleenex-- er, tissue. Then, I noticed my finger was cut and put a Band-Aid-- adhesive bandage on it after putting some Vaseline-- petroleum jelly on the gauze part.

I'm actually shocked a defense attorney would have you on the jury, as they usually consider police and former police to be biased for the prosecution. You must have been in with some really interesting people or something about you must have clicked with the defense. Maybe he's a gamer. Here's a clue: if the defense mentions the word "role" "magic" or "sword" he's pandering to you.

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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (thank you Kickstarter) (edit) BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and will soon have some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep shipping shortly in my grubby hands awaiting a review..

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls (and still waiting on dT&T to ship).

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 48, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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